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Saturday, 19 November 2011

Heavy Metal for Kids

Q: What do you call a band of dinosaurs playing heavy metal?
A: Hevisaurus!

No, really. This is not a joke. Not in Finland at least.

Heavy metal is a music genre that has not been cool in most parts of the world for eons. In fact, some might call that type of music dinosaur rock, given that it has barely changed since bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple roamed the Earth, some 40 (million) years ago.

In Finland however, heavy metal is taken very, very seriously. This death- and horror-obsessed music is everywhere – there's nothing quite like sipping a beer in a Helsinki bar while listening to Iron Maiden’s classic “Bring your daughter to the slaughter” . Throughout the country, heavy metal's disciples are legion, unmistakable with their long hair and black attire accessorised by S&M paraphernalia.

Live and let live, I say. What happens between consenting adults is their business.

But should children be exposed to all this? Well it seems, Finns think it's OK.

Thanks to kid-friendly, all-dinosaur power metal group Hevisaurus, Finnish children can now be indoctrinated young. Of course the lyrics are adapted to the younger audiences, but the music is unmistakably heavy, and the dinosaurs wear the same S&M accessories and perform the same “Devil's Horn” hand-sign (all be it with fewer digits) as their older (?) counterparts.

It's no joke either: Hevisaurus have been hugely successful in Finland. Their first album, “Jurahevin kuninkaat” (“Kings of Jurassic Metal”), released in 2009, stayed in the charts for 10 weeks and reached the number 5 position.

With a whole new generation of disciples being groomed right now, it looks like heavy metal will live on in Finland for many decades to come.

"In fact, some might call that type of music dinosaur rock, given that it has barely changed since bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple roamed the Earth, some 40 (million) years ago."

I find that quite an odd view, since metal has actually changed a lot and created quite a number of different categories. Also Finland has produced some of the most successful modern metal bands and is one of the few countries (or perhaps even only one) where even bands with growling vocals can be #1 on the charts..

I don't think you can really say that bands like Children of Bodom, Nightwish or Ensiferum sound a lot like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath or Deep Purple.

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About Me

I am not Finnish (I am Franco-English). I don't speak much Finnish (though I do speak several other languages). I don't even live in Finland and I never have (I currently reside in the UK). But I have been given an honoury Finnish name (Olli Miekka) by some Finns I know, so surely that qualifies me to comment on all things Fininish.